Over the last few years, the use of digital cameras has increased enormously, with digital cameras now commonly being incorporated into other portable electronic equipment, particularly mobile telephones. Digital cameras allow users to take large numbers of photographs, knowing that they can be selective about which and how many images they may subsequently choose to print or otherwise retain. This results in a user having a large collection of digital images.
SenseCam is a wearable camera developed by Microsoft Research which can be used to assist with memory recall by enabling a user to rewind through the recent events experienced by the wearer of the device. This may be particularly useful for memory-impaired individuals, or where an individual has experienced a traumatic event (e.g. an elderly person's fall resulting in injury).
The device can capture very large numbers of images and in addition to capturing images, the device also records sensor data, such as movement, light level and temperature periodically. This sensor data is used to trigger the capturing of images, for example, when there is a change in light level or sudden movement. A change in light level may indicate that a user has moved from one room to another, or from inside to outside and therefore the image captured will indicate a change in location (and environment) of the wearer. The device has a wide angle or fish-eye lens so that the user does not need to worry about pointing the device in a particular direction. An accelerometer is used for image stabilisation.
Through use of a conventional digital camera or a SenseCam, a user may generate a huge collection of digital images that they may wish to view. Many software applications exist which allow users to browse their photographs via a directory structure or folder hierarchy and to view images within a directory/folder in the form of a filmstrip or a slide-show. The filmstrip view displays the images from a directory adjacent to each other along a horizontal line (arranged in alphabetical order by filename), with scroll bars allowing the user to move along the strip. The slide-show view displays the images within a directory sequentially according to an alphabetic listing by filename. Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) techniques have also been developed which allow the user to flip through their photographs either in forward or reverse and at an adjustable speed. At slow speeds, the display is like a slide-show view and at fast speeds the display is more similar to a movie.
Although such views may work well in displaying directories containing tens of photographs, they may not be optimum for displaying directories containing much larger numbers of photographs. In particular problems may arise for a user trying to view images taken on a SenseCam, which may capture several hundred pictures (or potentially in excess of one thousand) images during a single day.